#129 Christopher Blackwell: How A Prison 'Heal Circle' Helps Incarcerated Men

Christopher Blackwell has been a lot of things in his life. As a young boy he was a son longing to connect with his father over classic cars and football. As a teenager he was an insecure class clown, and then a dropout. In his 20s he was a drug dealer living in survival mode in a neighborhood riddled with crime and violence. And now he's an inmate in the Washington Corrections Center, serving a 45-year prison sentence for robbery and murder. But Blackwell is also an award-winning journalist, the co-founder of a non-profit organization focused on prison reform, a mentor to other inmates, and a husband. On this episode of Paternal, Blackwell reflects on how growing up without community and positive male role models led to a tragic robbery gone wrong, and how he's transformed himself thanks to prison's "heal circle," where inmates share their stories and discover a sense of honesty and camaraderie they never had as young men. Blackwell is the co-founder of Look2Justice , a grassroots organization led by criminal legal system-impacted people that works to transform the legal system by providing civic education and empowerment programs for incarcerated people and their loved ones. His first book, Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement , is available for pre-order now.

You can listen to #129 Christopher Blackwell: How A Prison 'Heal Circle' Helps Incarcerated Men online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

#129 Christopher Blackwell: How A Prison 'Heal Circle' Helps Incarcerated Men is an episode from Paternal by Nick Firchau.

This episode is 40:04 long.

This episode was published on Apr 24, 2025.

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